One of my daughters reminded me recently that even with all the strides women have taken towards gender equality in opportunities and benefits, there’s one gender equality battle that even the most die-hard feminists don’t seem to want to fight and that’s for the obligations of registering for Selective Service, our military draft.

Beside a picture of a woman improperly wearing the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) the Selective Service program offers this explanation:

Women Aren’t Required to Register

Here’s why:

THE LAW

Selective Service law as it’s written now refers specifically to “male persons” in stating who must register and who would be drafted. For women to be required to register with Selective Service, Congress would have to amend the law.

THE SUPREME COURT

The constitutionality of excluding women was tested in the courts. A Supreme Court decision in 1981, Rostker v. Goldberg, held that registering only men did not violate the due process clause of the Constitution.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Following a unanimous recommendation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced, on January 24, 2013, the end of the direct ground combat exclusion rule for female service members. The service branches continue to move forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service. Ongoing project is still underway.

The Selective Service System, if given the mission and modest additional resources, is capable of registering and drafting women with its existing infrastructure.

While the Selective Service tells us why we don’t require women to register for the draft it doesn’t give us any insight into why this battle for gender equality isn’t being fought.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Army opening up the Ranger course to women and the Marine Corp’s evaluation of women in infantry units there are a few key points that seem to come out of data, studies and anecdotes coming out of these programs:

Women’s bodies in general have a more difficult time operating under infantry combat load and the female injury rate was significantly higher than the male. Like it or not gender differences in upper body strength, muscle mass and the ability to carry ridiculously heavy loads for days at a time are a reality.

The failure rate in Ranger School and the unit success rate in the Marine Corps pilot program were significantly higher in multi-gender units. In the Marine Corps program this meant that units were less capable of accomplishing the objective and in the Ranger School classes that had female soldiers there was a significantly higher failure rate among the men than in male only classes (the female failure rate was even higher).

Some women could hack it. It wasn’t a large percentage but there are women capable of operating at that level.

Now I’ll admit that I was raised in an era when we were taught that women were special, people to be prized and catered to. When I first left the infantry and began serving with female soldiers I had to keep myself from extending courtesies that had been engrained since childhood like opening the door for them and assuming the heavy, dirty and unpleasant tasks that men have historically tried to protect the women in their lives from…I taught myself to treat them like any other soldier, no better, no worse. Over the years I have served for, with and led a number of female soldiers. Some were capable, some were not. Some tried to use their gender, even their ‘feminine wiles’ to shirk their duties while others were hesitant even to take a soldierly helping hand because they didn’t want to be perceived as less capable.

Potential unit and individual performance issues in infantry units aside, women can and do perform almost all military tasks as good as their male counterparts. With the male military eligible population at an all time low, maybe as low as 25% (age, illness, obesity, criminal history, drug use, & educational requirements) we need women in our ranks now more than ever and even more so should we need to activate a Selective Service Draft. Why is the gender equality crowd nearly silent on this important national security and gender equality issue? Why is the Draft the gender equality issue even feminists don’t want to fight?

I’ve said often enough that my close friends are starting to quote me that ‘I refuse to be a refugee.’ That’s easy for me to say as I live far from hurricane and wildfire country, nowhere near a nuclear plant and in a part of the country with a relatively low population density (by coastal standards) but as I read James Wesley Rawles‘ book, The Liberators: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse a few months ago I began thinking again about prepping for political risk.

In the novel, the fifth book in Rawles’ post-crunch, ‘Patriots‘ world the characters find themselves living in territory that was both formerly part of both the U.S. and Canada but the respective national governments have since fallen. Each character must make their own decision about how to react to the advance of foreign armies and the creation of a new nation…one with radically different values than many of the residents hold.

While I refuse to be a refugee during tough times, an economic downturn or following a natural disaster…what about political change? If I find myself living in a secessionist State promoting morally repugnant policies do I flee to parts unknown? This is the very situation a number of our ancestors found themselves in a century and a half ago as the secessionist movement tore our country apart. What if the policies and values of the good old U.S.A. become unrecognizable and morally repugnant to you…how does one prepare for that?

I have friends that think our nation is on the road to ruin and have become expatriates and if recent polls are to be believed the majority of our country agrees that we’re on the wrong track so prepping for political risk isn’t just a good idea it’s potentially a matter of life and death?

Ten Ways To Prepare For Political Risk

Relocate to an area less susceptible to political risk: The preparedness writer FerFal, who writes at Surviving In Argentina, did this when he moved from Argentina to Northern Ireland…think about that for a minute…Northern Ireland is safer than Argentina…I guess centuries of religious strife is safer than what a few years of socialism have done to the once great country of Argentina. Rawles promotes moving to the inland West of the U.S., what he describes as the American Redoubt, for a number of reasons including the political climate.

Become a dual citizen: More and more wealthy U.S. citizens are hedging their bets by becoming dual citizens…and not just former U.S. Representative Michelle Bachman who has since given up her Swiss citizenship. Dual citizenship doesn’t just make it safer to travel in some parts of the world it also gives you another place that you can call home without the threat of deportation. There are a number of ways to obtain dual citizenship without moving to the other country including reclaiming citizenship for the country of your birth, through marriage, through lineage, and even through investment.

Give up your citizenship: The number of U.S. citizens surrendering their citizenship is at an all time high…more due to U.S. tax policies than to political risk but it’s becoming more popular and can be quite lucrative like Facebook‘s cofounder of Eduardo Saverin discovered when he resigned his naturalized U.S. citizenship on the eve of cashing out of Facebook’s for their IPO. Can you imagine anyone giving up their hard won U.S. citizenship for tax savings…it’s happening more and more as the idea of American exceptionalism wanes.

Vote: Help select officials that support freedom and liberty so as to reduce political risk. Don’t tolerate the election of those bent on abusing power even at the local level as local successes spur the bastards on to seek larger offices. Note: When you do vote, just vote one time (in each and every election) and make sure to doublecheck your voting machine as it’s recently been discovered that some voting machines are actually robotic party operatives.

Donate: Contribute to politicians that support freedom, liberty and our founding values. Like it or not… money is the fuel that powers political campaigns and does effect whether the forces of freedom or the forces of tyranny get to make the rules until the next election.

Stand for election: Stand for election…unless of course you feel that you are better at making decisions for folks than they can make for themselves…then stay home, don’t vote and spend your money buying lots of liquor, Twinkies and Matt Damon movies.

Be a voice of reason: Call out the statists you encounter day-to-day when they start blabbering Newspeak or saying things like ‘businesses don’t create jobs’. Learn to do it with confidence and finesse. I don’t like direct confrontation because it shuts people down instead of opening their minds…try asking questions (the Socratic method) like ‘then who do you think creates jobs…’ and ‘how are jobs created then?’

Write: One of the ways I support freedom and liberty is by writing about tyranny and freedom issues from time to time. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, write a blog, comment on a blog, write a freedom living e-mail and see if you can get it to go viral (hint…kittens and soldier/sailor/airmen/Marine stories are always good viral e-mail topics).

Cultivate optimism: Cultivate optimism in yourself and others. It’s easy to get discouraged as we see statist and devotees of Saul Alinski elected and running for the nation’s highest office but our founders built a resilient system replete with checks and balances…we just have to refocus our efforts and dismantle as much as the anti-liberty constitutional ‘interpretations’ and dial back as much government over-reach as possible.

Never give up, never surrender: To steal a catchphrase from the Tim Allen space comedy Galaxy Quest, never give up, never surrender! The fight is too important to our country, our future and to future generations to roll over and accept tyranny. For nearly 240 years the United States has served as a beacon of hope to the entire world, a place where a peasant could build a new life for him and maybe end up living like a king. Freedom is liberating and generates opportunities like no cast system, aristocracy or oligarchy ever could.

The U.S. is still a freedom loving country…even with recent shifts in the political climate but we must maintain our vigilance, promote liberty and bring up future generations to view/fight tyranny as our forefathers and mothers did as part of our own prepping for political risk.

Like this:

Forty years ago today, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam fell to communist forces more than a year after the withdrawal of the last U.S. combat troops. The butcher’s bill from U.S involvement in Vietnam was tremendous and we honor those sacrifices at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Let’s pray that our Nation’s leaders carefully consider our National goals and interests prior to committing combat troops and once combat forces are committed that we keep the politicians out of their way and let our men and women in uniform crush our enemies and win the peace.

Like this:

In [President] Obama’s defense, he’s a liar. His core supporters believe him, who can ask for better evidence? No sense in getting all worked up about it. Some people are left handed, some people are short and others tall, some people stutter. Obama lies. It’s just his way. He can’t help it so let it be.

Like this:

Despite what the open borders crowd and ACLU will tell you, yes it is: “.. in North Carolina, which compared its voter rolls against a federal immigration database. The cross-check of 10,000 voters found 1,425 likely non-citizen voters, including 109 illegal immigrants or so-called “Dreamers.” And with elections being decided by a few hundred or few thousand votes, such as Al Franken ’s 312-vote win in the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race, these numbers make voter fraud a real possibility.

“…two Old Dominion professors concluded that non-citizen votes may have been responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina. “Obama won the state by 14,177 votes, so a turnout by 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens would have provided this victory margin.””

So you can’t buy beer or wine, or cigarettes, or get on an airplane, or cash a check, or pick up your prescription, without an ID, and that’s no problem. But to vote? Come on down! Show an ID?? Why, that’s racist! You’re suppressing my vote! What if I don’t have an ID? (Notice how we have evidence of voter fraud, illegals with IDs on the voter rolls, but the folks that fight against Voter ID Laws never seem to have actual evidence and numbers and real people with them that can prove that the law keeps someone from voting. And actually, it can never actually keep someone from voting that is legally able to vote: all they have to do is get the required ID, and most states bend over backward to make sure that is easy and cheap to do).

Andrew’s Note: I still get asked for my ID when I vote…I don’t think it’s a political statement or a sanctity of the ballot box issue…I think the election judge just finds it easier to find me on the roles…but I always say “thank you for checking ID.”

Like this:

There aren’t many honest men or women in Washington anymore. Politicians get where they are by the sheer force of their egos, not their convictions. And you know what? It’s our fault as voters. We don’t demand better candidates, so we end up getting what we deserve—on both sides of the aisle.”

Like this:

Illinois voters have used many elections to make theirs the worst-governed state, with about $100 billion in unfunded public pension promises, and $6.7 billion in unpaid bills.

The state is a stark illustration of prolonged one-party rule conducted by politicians subservient to government employees unions.

A new Gallup poll shows that Illinois has the highest percentage — 50% — of residents who want to leave their state. If Illinois voters re-elect Gov. Pat Quinn, 65, they will reject Bruce Rauner, 58, who vows to change the state’s fundamental affliction — its political culture.

The state’s strongest civic tradition is of governors going to jail. Four of the last nine have done so.

Andrew’s Note: My father is a wise man. When I was young he taught me that one of the greatest gifts the founders gave us was government gridlock. He said that the nation was best served when one party controlled the White House and the other controlled Congress. I agree and we have cities like Chicago and Detroit to remind us what one party rule has in store for the U.S.

Andrew’s Note: Why do folks fall for meaningless political speech…what does this even mean? It makes as much sense as U.S. citizens, resident aliens and the dead electing a freshman Senator promising hope and change.

Like this:

You turn on the TV, and you see very bland interviews. Journalists in the United States are very cozy with power, very close to those in power. They laugh with them. They go to the [White House] correspondents’ dinner with them. They have lunch together. They marry each other. They’re way too close to each other. I think as journalists we have to keep our distance from power… I’m not seeing those correspondents that would question those in power. It’s like a club. We are not asking the tough questions.